Houston SBERP Recovery & Resiliency Component

While the primary goal of the Small Business Economic Relief Program was to provide immediate, short-term financial assistance to small businesses and chambers of commerce severely and negatively impacted by the pandemic, it was also important to provide these businesses with advisory and capacity-building services that would help with their economic recovery and build their resiliency. In order to receive the second half of their total grant award, businesses approved to receive funds from the SBERP were required to complete the Recovery and Resiliency component of the program. Grant recipients were required to complete a series of four 1-hour workshops on topics such as strategic planning, finance, marketing, and human resource management.

RECOVERY & RESILIENCY WORKSHOPS

Presented by Arquella Hargrove of Epic Collaborative Advisors and Kyra Hardwick of The Kyra Company, LLC, both minority- and women-owned small businesses, the SBERP Recovery and Resiliency workshops covered the following topics:

THE RESILIENT BUSINESS OWNER:

Understanding risk and designing a business resiliency strategy.

SECURING THE BUSINESS:

Effective communication and the importance of a marketing plan that increases a company’s visibility.

PEOPLE, PROCESS & PRODUCTIVITY:

Leadership capacity, managing during a crisis, and how to guide a team to recovery.

NEXT STEPS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS:

How to enable ongoing operations before and during a business interruption.

When COVID hit in March, we lost more than 75 percent of revenue on contracts. With the help of SBERP grant funds, we were able to sustain our operational costs to keep the doors open while we invested in marketing to reposition our company. The Recovery and Resiliency component of the program was also very helpful and thoroughly efficient in explaining how to lay the groundwork to set your business up to continue to operate in crisis and emergencies. We have executed the business strategies that were presented and are very grateful to have received the SBERP funding.

- Carolyn Mitchell, Millennial Staffing Solutions, LLC

Carolyn Mitchell, Millennial Staffing Solutions, LLC